Artist Alex Sheriff shows the model of the public sculpture he his creating called “Monument to the Birth of Dogs Through Their Friendships With Humans” in his Los Angeles studio on Friday, August 31, 2018 for dOGUMENTA, an exhibition of contemporary art for dogs. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

The 29-year-old Canadian artist’s latest is “Monument to the Birth of Dogs Through Their Friendship With Humans” for Dogumenta, a free exhibition of contemporary artworks created for dogs by mostly local artists at FIGat7th in Downtown L.A., from Friday, Sept. 14 through Sunday, Sept. 16 and Friday, Sept. 21 through Sunday, Sept. 23.

Dogumenta canine curator Rocky sniffs out this dog sculpture that the artist Tibi Tibi Neuspiel made from dog toys. (Photo by Adi Shniderman)

Artist Alex Sheriff shows the model of the public sculpture he his creating called “Monument to the Birth of Dogs Through Their Friendships With Humans” in his Los Angeles studio on Friday, August 31, 2018 for dOGUMENTA, an exhibition of contemporary art for dogs. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Artist Alex Sheriff shows the model of the public sculpture he his creating called “Monument to the Birth of Dogs Through Their Friendships With Humans” in his Los Angeles studio on Friday, August 31, 2018 for dOGUMENTA, an exhibition of contemporary art for dogs. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

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Artist Alex Sheriff shows the model of the public sculpture he his creating called “Monument to the Birth of Dogs Through Their Friendships With Humans” in his Los Angeles studio on Friday, August 31, 2018 for dOGUMENTA, an exhibition of contemporary art for dogs. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Artist Alex Sheriff talks about the public sculpture he his creating called “Monument to the Birth of Dogs Through Their Friendships With Humans” in his Los Angeles studio on Friday, August 31, 2018 for dOGUMENTA, an exhibition of contemporary art for dogs. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Artist Alex Sheriff shows the model of the public sculpture he his creating called “Monument to the Birth of Dogs Through Their Friendships With Humans” in his Los Angeles studio on Friday, August 31, 2018 for dOGUMENTA, an exhibition of contemporary art for dogs. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

During the show, dogs are invited to eat, sniff and even leave their mark on such featured works that include a two-sided mural by Ruben Rojas, a sculpture fashioned from squeaky toys by Tibi Tibi Neuspiel and an inflatable sculpture by Joshua Levine.

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“It’s creating an environment where dogs can be dogs and enjoy an aesthetic experience on their own terms,” said co-curator Mica Scalin, recalling last year’s New York City debut where “we saw truly incredible joy and curiosity.”

Dogumenta, presented by Arts Brookfield, drew 4,000 “culture hounds” over those three days in August 2017. The current exhibit is sponsored by Nature’s Recipe.

“It was such a howling success that we were contacted by folks across the country,” said Jessica Dawson, the show’s founding curator along with her Morkie rescue, Rocky, and Scalin. “We felt like Los Angeles was the logical next place.”

The idea for the exhibit came to Dawson, a longtime art critic for the Washington Post, after observing Rocky’s behavior toward art in New York galleries.

“He went up to the work, engaged with it and if he wasn’t into it he had no problem turning tail and walking away from it,” she said, adding she admired his ability to go with his gut.

Dogs can directly engage with the works however they see fit, and that includes climbing atop Sheriff’s “Monument,” a large plywood pyramid still to be painted gold and each level topped with artificial grass.

But, the artist explained, it’s more than just a series of steps. Everything about the work highlights some humancentric accomplishment, and that goes for the dogs that visit it.

“The way that dogs came to be was early humans domesticated wolves, and eventually, over thousands of years, those dogs evolved into the dogs that we now know,” Sheriff said. “So, on the sides, I decided to do a fun play on the way the ears of dogs domesticated over time have gone from wolf sharp to droopy.”

And if the architecture, fake grass and outlines of ears don’t hit home the intention that this piece is supposed to be funny, its soundtrack will.

Concealed in the top level of the structure is a speaker that pipes Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” performed by barking dogs commissioned for the work.

“Alex’s piece has all these components that makes it an exemplary work of art,” Scalin said. “Dogs are going to respond fantastically to it.”

Los Angeles Daily News reporter Sandra Barrera has been writing about entertainment and lifestyle topics since 1998. Before joining the Daily News in 2000, she was a reporter for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario where she helped launch the now-defunct entertainment magazine 72HOURS as its music writer. Her reporting career at the Daily News has included fashion coverage from the red carpet at Hollywood's biggest awards shows, home and garden trends with a particular focus on earth-friendly alternatives and a wide range of events, from theater to the latest happenings at Six Flags Magic Mountain.